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EMPIRE FLYING BOAT ATTACK BY JAPANESE THIRTEEN LIVES LOST MELBOURNE, Feb. 4. Thirteen persons were killed when a Qantas Empire Airways flying boat was attacked by enemy fighters and crashed' into the sea during a flight from Darwin to Koepang (Timor) on Friday. Revealing this, the Minister for Air, Mr A. S. Drakeford, said the aircraft carried 13 passengers and a crew of five, of whom three passengers and two members of the crew had been saved. The aircraft was forced down by fighters at the mouth of the Noelmina River, near Koepang, at about the same time as Japanese bombing raids were made on the town.
When the flying boat crashed into the sea its back was broken, and it sank shortly afterwards. One of the survivors, Captain A. A. Koch, com- 1 mander of the flying boat, received a broken right leg and machine-gun wounds in the left arm and left leg. Medical aid was sent to the injured, who are known to be on the mainland, in the vicinity of Koepang. The aircraft carried a ton of mails, and it is considered unlikely that they would be recovered.
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Bibliographic details
Otago Daily Times, Issue 24833, 5 February 1942, Page 4
Word Count
193SHOT DOWN Otago Daily Times, Issue 24833, 5 February 1942, Page 4
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